LOL It might revolutionize the concept of pecking order. Plus we would have a new symptom to contend with: `My discus won't come out of his shell! What should I do?' :D
Martha
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LOl,
You guys are too funny... :)
April,
I'm hoping to live a heck of alot longer than that April.:D I'm shooting for at least a nice round number like 100 years.. but will take as much time here as given.;) Then Ryan can inherit the forum:D:D:D:D:DQuote:
wow brew..guess your not going anywhere for awhile..you have to live long enough to caretake those guys..
nice tortoises.
-al
Thought I would post a few images here of my red footed Tortoises. I had gotten 6 back in the summer of 2007 as captive bred hatchlings.. It'll be 7 years since I got them this summer. I have 5 now here still, The 6th, a runt, I gave to one of my brothers. The largest of the group is about 12'' long now.. They are still growing but I need to find a male in the next few years..yes.. they are all females!
They spend the winter indoors here, but once the temps warm up , they go outside for a few months. I built them an outdoor pen thats about 20 feet X 30 feet. I'll be framing off part ogf my garage this summer to do the same inside for them..they are too big now for tanks and still growing!
-al
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...6&d=1403005637
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...3&d=1403005606
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...5&d=1403005626
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...4&d=1403005617
These guys must love being outside Al and definitely too big for tanks. Sort of a shame they are all females. Is gender determined by temp maintained while they are still in the egg?
Pat with some turtles yes.. But I have a feeling the breeder that I bought them from just had a disproportionate number of females this hatch and sent them my way. A male of breeding age is going to set me back a few hundred dollars, but I have 5 females to breed it with so not to concerned there.
That last set of pics was with my cell phone.. I have to say, the Droid Razor X2 has a terrible camera! Heres a set I took with my pentax DSLR K20D. Its an older digital but still a great camera.
-al
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...9&d=1403008052
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...0&d=1403008063
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...1&d=1403008079
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...2&d=1403008091
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...3&d=1403008104
two more...
She's eating one her favorite foods here...fresh Grape vine leaves...
-al
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...5&d=1403008439
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...4&d=1403008429
These are great, I remember seeing these when I was over in 2009. They were quite small then and iirc in an acrylic tank. Definitely time to get a male I'd say :)
Pretty cool!
These are really neat wish I had time to have some. I just have two red ear sliders.....Very cool Al.......Josie
Those are so cool. It's especially nice that you've created such a natural habitat for them.
Thank you!
These are a really great tortoise to keep...they are easy to maintain and very gentle creatures. The pen is planted with plants they like to eat from.. Theres daylily, rose of sharon, and grape vines.
-al
They look great and healthy Al. I don't know about your tortoises and how tall is your fence but my 3 toes turtle keep climbing out 12" block fence. at first i did not know they are able to climb over. Then 1 day i caught them use other's back and climbed over :). It's crazy so i let them run all over my backyard.
Hi Tony,
So far these guys haven't shown any inclination to climb, they are really heavy and slow movers so they should not be able to climb.. ythe walls were about 18 " then some mulch so probably close to 15 " and its such a large pen that they pretty much all spread out in it... but I have been watching and built it so I could easily add more height if needed.
I like the 3 toed alot..I had some a few years ago as well as grew up with native eastern box turtles here... These red footed tortoises are native to South America.
-al
Very cool Al. I too love reptiles and used to keep iguanas. As a kid I would go outside and flip boards over and try to catch garter snakes, gopher snakes, frogs, salamanders, and red bellied newts.
red eared sliders are now on the invasive specie list here in Oregon as people would buy them and later dump them in the local ponds, and we all know the rest of that story with the Sliders taking over.
I used to work where I could catch some good sized bull snakes (four to six feet in length) and have transported six or so home to let loose over the years and now I see a baby (one foot plus or minus in length) about every year coming from under the house. Bull snakes are great for eating spiders, scorpions, rattle snakes, mice and other vermin.